this week at the FPL

Today was the first day of Project Live Oak at the Front Porch Library–and also a boom day for kids, thank goodness–I think I counted 11 but they were moving pretty darned fast–I know we have a sign in sheet, but I haven’t slowed down long enough to look at it–moving fast is a universal state at the library.

But back to our tree project. The neighborhood has been losing its grandfather oaks at an alarming rate over the last few months. Many are dropping limbs and proving to be hollow and rotten at the heart and no one is planting replacement oaks. Crepe myrtles, as pretty as they are, are no stand-in for an oak–and that’s where the FPL comes in.

First, we visited the huge oak in the library’s back yard. It goes by the name Bob Star, named by library kids of years past. First we circled it touching finger tip to finger tip–then we measured it with a string because our arms were not of uniform length. After doing some very shaky math on the chalk board we determined that Bob Star is 17.5 feet in diameter.

We will never see our Live Oak project produce a tree of that magnitude, but the planter of Bob Star never saw its full magnificence either. And so we set out with a bowl and a colander to collect acorns. We sighted down the road, picking out the live oaks–Olivia was especially good at picking them out. Moving from tree to tree, the kids scrabbled along the edge of the road gathering seeds.

When we got back we put them in a big bowl which we flooded. The floaters were scooped off the top–and that is just step one in a very long process, but I feel really pleased that we are taking on this project. As Vivienne said, “Without trees you can’t breathe!”